Databody (2018)

On the backdrop of two visits to St. Petersburg/Russia after a period of 20 years the author explores, how his body was transformed to a data body, constantly producing and accessing data. With the help of Google Maps and Youtube he visits and revisits places in the city. It evolves a playful witnessing of the city, the body and the datascape that is formed from their intersection. »This is, what changed: My body now is a data-body. It has been fragmented, copied, split and divided into data – saved in databases. No longer an individual, rather divided and dividual.« The experimental documentary combines originial photography, Youtube recordings, video and the Google Streetview interface to a dense visual narration, where present and past constantly intertwine. On a second view the film observes from the outside how the city has changed between the 1998 Rubel devaluation recession and today.